las vegas - rock & roll marathon

stole away to vegas this weekend, as a few of my UCLA brethren were in town to run the marathon (well i should say only keith, as the rest opted for the 1/2 marathon). was planning to drive out there early friday morning, but because my buddy jerico (frosh roommate!) forgot to bring the keys to his parents' condo, i opted to take off on thursday night, in order to grab the keys from his parents in west covina. after a shady transaction in a closed el pollo loco parking lot, i ventured out, keys in hand.

pulled up to the palms casino at 2:30am, where we proceeded to get spanked in pai gow for the next few hours. we left at 5:30am to head back to the condo, only to realize we didn't have a gate clicker to get in. of course, i could have easily cleared the height given my parkour background, but fortunately for them, somebody was returning home, so we snuck in behind them.


hit the hay at 6:30am, woke up at 10am and hit up this breakfast joint called the egg & i, which was surprisingly good. should anybody find themselves feenin for a banana nut muffin, their homemade ones are the bee's knees. and their sicilian skillet ain't half bad either...

we then headed to mandalay bay to pick up registration stuff for the race. i was able to nab a swag bag by posing as a runner, so now i have multiple samples of energy gels called gu than i know what to do with. the race expo was ginormous, and a reported 30,000 peeps would run either the half marathon or full marathon come sunday morning. i even ran into victor jih, 1/2 of the brother-sister duo that won 'the amazing race 15.'




charlie palmer's aureole restaurant is also located at mandalay bay, so i was able to sneak in some pics of their famed 4-story wine tower, which wine angel stewards ascend to retrieve your bottles. damn impressive if you ask me, but needless to say we didn't dine here...

instead, we went for a carb overload at capo's, an old-school, speakeasy italian restaurant. when you enter the front door, you descend upon a four-walled enclosed space, where they ask you to 'ring da bell.' then out of nowhere, the maitre d' slides open this small panel to instigate conversation.

we didn't have reservations, but got seated within 20 minutes, which was just enough time to appreciate the huge portrait of al capone hanging on the wall with 'goodfellas' playing in the background. ordered up the chicago style supreme pizza and some pesto pasta, both of which were the bomb shiz.

after dinner, we met up with some buddies who were staying at THEhotel at mandalay bay, which is a stunning boutique hotel right on the strip. everything from the registration desk to the hallway leading up to it was gorgeously appointed, as shown below. all i can say is, the next time i fall into some cash, i'm staying here next...




after a touch of gambling, we decided to head back to our condo for our own poker game. we ended up playing three tournaments - one of which i won - so it was a good night...